A love of plants and the challenge of growing them give Leu Gardens' director a sense of strength and solace.
 
Collector's Garden
 
Sherry Boas
Sentinel Correspondent

October 12, 2002

Special to the Sentinal

LONGWOOD – As the driving force behind one of the Southeast's premier public gardens, Robert Bowden frequently finds himself in the limelight. Whether leading a workshop, giving a lecture or visiting other horticultural centers around the country, Bowden thrives on any opportunity to promote the gardens. But when it comes to sharing his private domain, this engaging leader with the ready smile and quiet energy quickly puts up his guard. Married for 30 years and the father of four teenagers, Bowden is protective of his private life, placing a high value on time with family in his own backyard garden.

"Gardening is my therapy," says the 50-year-old executive director of Harry P. Leu Gardens in Orlando.

Weekends are "at-home" times, and by 5 a.m. on Saturdays Bowden is already up and outside. Dressed in a pair of old trousers, a sky-blue Hawaiian shirt and rubber boots, he strolls through the lushly landscaped 2-acre parcel off Markham Woods Road where he and his family have lived for the past nine years.

"I like to come out here early and listen to the neighborhood wake up," says Bowden, as he stands amid the vast collection of ornamentals and native species that outline his back yard.

"When we moved here, there were only three trees. My kids planted all the other oaks from acorns. The pines came as Santa's saplings. Look how tall they are now. I grew many of the other plants from seed or from cuttings. Some were given to me as gifts," he says in a rich, soothing voice that resonates with a mixture of mellowness and amusement.

"I get to play and try things out at home. This is a plant collector's garden."

IT'S AN INFORMAL PARTY

It is hard to think of the Bowdens' back yard as just one garden. Plants of all sizes, shapes, colors, textures and aromas grow together in a multitude of curving beds that bend around corners, swoop into the lawn and then turn seductively away, only to merge with yet another seemingly random bed of plantings. The effect is natural and informal.

Bowden has observed 15 to 20 varieties of butterflies and a similar number of bird species visiting his backyard refuge. But it's the family cats, Tom Cat and Naomi, who think this verdant landscape was created just for them. And maybe it was, at least in part.

"Someone once asked me what my favorite garden ornament is," Bowden says reaching down to give Tom Cat a rub. "I would have to say it's the cats. The way they are always brushing against aromatic plants releasing fragrances into the air makes them the perfect ornament for the garden."

The cats laze in the shade as Bowden moves from one densely planted bed to another.

"I don't like to cut grass, and nothing is clipped," says the prominent horticulturist who has traveled extensively in the United States and the Caribbean giving talks on a variety of gardening topics.

Bowden spends an average of three hours each week working in the garden. His main activity is planting. Each month he adds between 200 and 300 plants, mostly derived from cuttings and seeds he has collected during his travels and from his own yard. He also likes to experiment with plants he purchases through mail-order, particularly ones that typically do not grow in a subtropical climate.

"Many of the plants that we grow at Leu Gardens started out here. I try them and see how they do. If they do well, I bring them to the gardens, but it's a one-way street," he explains. "I can take plants to the gardens, but because Leu Gardens is owned by the City of Orlando, I can't take anything from the gardens back to my house -- except when we have a plant sale. Then I'm a customer just like anybody else."

CITY BENEFITS

Bowden's ongoing home garden experiments have enriched the city's botanical collections and his dedication hasn't gone unnoticed by the higher-ups. For example, his boss, Walter Hawkins, director of Community and Youth Services for Orlando, has this to say about Robert:

"He has a great passion for his work and is, in my opinion, one of the best gardening professionals in the nation. He has a good team spirit and a superb attitude."

Orlando Mayor Glenda Hood is equally impressed.

"Soft-spoken by nature, Robert Bowden's daily dedication to his profession speaks volumes of the passion and commitment he holds to fulfill the mission of Orlando's Leu Gardens," she says.

But back home in his garden, the praise Bowden cares about is the contented song of a mockingbird and the soft buzz of hummingbird wings. To ensure that birds, butterflies and beneficial insects continue to be attracted to his yard Bowden uses only Neem oil and a spray made from Ivory soap for bug control.

The mulch he uses comes from his neighbors' yards. Each year he collects more than 400 bags of leaves to enrich his soil and protect his ever-increasing stock of plants.

"I'm beginning to run out of space," he says, mischievously eyeing a portion of his neighbor's unplanted back yard.

Bowden's quest for new ground is the result of his passion for planting. Behind the house is a screened pool almost concealed by greenery. White beautyberry bushes brush against red and purple porterweed. Clumps of crown grass rub against tall pink cosmos not far from a towering variegated-leaf Buddha belly bamboo.

Nearby, several vines wind their way up tree trunks. A wooden bench, Bowden's favorite spot in what he calls "The Shade Garden," is partly concealed by the large leaves of a giant begonia. Next to the bench is a 100-gallon pond in which several small goldfish swim. Bowden and one of his sons built the concrete pond as well as two bubbly fountains.

"The water adds a nice sound to the gardens, and we like to watch the raccoons wash their hands in the little pond," he says.

The Bowdens' property backs up to the Seminole-Wekiva Bike Trail, but passing cyclists are hidden by tall, dense border plantings. About half of a dry retention pond crosses the back quarter of the land. He calls it "The Lower Garden." His kids call it "The Ditch." A large net stretches across the area's grassy center, providing a place for family badminton and volleyball games. In the past six months, Bowden has been busy moving perennials and adding plants to the sloping terrain.

"My dad used to tell me a perennial garden has to be put in the wheelbarrow and moved at least three times," says the Ohio native whose comments are frequently peppered with bits of his father's home-grown wisdom.

PARK RANGER A FIRST DREAM

Although Bowden grew up with parents who were avid gardeners, he didn't start out wanting to be a horticulturist.

"My life desire was to be a park ranger," says Bowden.

That's not surprising because his mother and father both were Scoutmasters who packed up their four children and headed to national parks whenever they had a chance. Some of Bowden's fondest memories are of camping and exploring nature and the outdoors with his family.

Bowden grew up in Mentor, Ohio, the home of Wayside Gardens, which is one of the oldest catalog gardening centers in the country. His father, Earle, was a factory foreman who worked the third shift. During the day, he also drove a school bus, and in the spring, summer and fall, he held a third job in the shipping department at Wayside Gardens. One of his job perks was to take home any plants that didn't measure up for customers.

"We always had a large garden," recalls Bowden, sitting for a moment on the garden bench his children gave him for Father's Day. "My dad used to tell me, 'The secret of a green thumb are brown knees.' "

While Bowden inherited a love of gardening from his parents, his passion for the outdoors was tied to the dream of someday working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service. That dream was realized in 1972 when he landed a job as a park ranger at Bahia Honda State Park in the Florida Keys.

But his wife knew her husband would need more than a two-year college degree if he wanted to advance in his career. The couple moved to Tallahassee two years later so he could attend Florida A & M University where Bowden enrolled in the horticulture program. He graduated with a bachelor of science degree in 1978 and went to work the same year as the garden manager of Alfred B. Maclay State Gardens in Tallahassee.

"A good part of my career has been working in private gardens and estates," Bowden says.

His horticulture career seems to have come full circle since that early start at Maclay Gardens. In 1980 Bowden left Florida to manage a private estate in Michigan. Five years later, he earned his master's degree in public administration from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. For the next nine years, he managed gardens in New York, Missouri and Georgia before returning to the Sunshine State in 1994 to take the job at Leu.

"I love my job at Leu Gardens and after work I get to come home to this," says Bowden, rising from his brief rest on the wooden bench to continue strolling through his flower-scented sanctuary.

Bowden derives strength and solace from time spent in his back yard surrounded by the people he loves and the plants he loves to nurture.

"Every evening my wife and I come out with a cup of coffee and walk around the gardens smelling the aromatics and talk about the day."

Robert Bowden shares his no-digging method for creating a free-form garden bed:

1. Lay out a garden hose and adjust the shape for a plant bed.

2. Spray-paint the ground alongside the hose and remove the hose.

3. With a shovel, cut straight down through grass along the spray-painted line, but do not dig up the ground.

4. Spray the garden bed with a nonselective weed control product such as Roundup. Don't disturb the area for two weeks.

5. Spray the weed control again. Wait a couple of hours.

6. Plant directly into the ground. Don't bother to dig up the sod.

7. Mulch with leaves or pine straw.

Copyright © 2002, Orlando Sentinel